Exploring Space Will Have To Wait

CAPE CANAVERAL — Space science was supposed to get its biggest boost in 1986, but instead it might have been dealt its biggest blow when Challenger exploded.

The tragedy grounded the shuttle program indefinitely and ruins NASA's plans to join other countries in the study of Halley's comet from space. It almost certainly postpones the launch of two deep-space probes until next year.

Even when the shuttle program resumes, NASA will be without one of its four shuttles, which means access to space will be reduced 25 percent. A wait of three to four years to get an experiment aboard a shuttle will increase, probably discouraging some research.

Scientists also will face strong competition for room on the spaceplanes from NASA's paying customers -- satellite owners -- and the military, which can use national security as justification to go to the head of the line.

''Not having an extra orbiter in the fleet will delay a lot of useful work,'' said Jim Rose of St. Louis, who oversees a project by McDonnell Douglas Corp. to purify a hormone in space for use as a new drug.

Scientists with smaller research projects will suffer the most from the delay, said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. ''I think these guys have a problem,'' he said. ''I think they are going to have to sell aluminum siding for a couple of years.''

Shuttle research will be devoted only to the most important projects, Pike said, and ''a lot of these ant farm type things are going to be dropped.'' He and others believe student experiments, in particular, will suffer.

Scientists with large projects already are feeling the effects of the shuttle program being put on hold. The fleet of spaceplanes won't be in operation again until June at the earliest, and possibly much later.

By missing the January and early March shuttle missions, the United States will have little to contribute to the international effort to study Halley's comet from space. U.S. scientists will have to wait two years to begin studying data from Soviet, Japanese and European probes.

A May deadline to launch the Ulysses and Galileo probes to study Jupiter and the sun almost certainly will be missed, forcing a delay until June 1987 at the earliest.

The Galileo probe also was supposed to fly near an asteroid while en route to Jupiter. But the asteroid won't be in the right position if the probe is launched in June 1987, and scientists may have to find another asteroid to study.

The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in October, expected to be the crowning glory for space science in 1986, may be delayed.

For many programs, missing the deadlines means scientists and technicians who had geared up to oversee and analyze the results will be left with little to do in the interim, wasting time and money -- both in tight supply already. In general, the pace of space science will slow, affecting spinoff products and technologies and possibly the development of NASA's space station.

''There's no question if you can't get into space and do experiments, it's going to slow things,'' said Bill Kinard of Norfolk, Va., project scientist for a rack of experiments now orbiting Earth, called the Long Duration Exposure Facility.

A decrease in space science research could mean some technologies needed for the space station won't be ready in time for the project to meet President Reagan's start-up date of 1992. However, efforts to reduce the federal deficit already were threatening to delay the station a few years.

Pike said he expects more of a ''hiccup'' in the progress of space science rather than a long-term setback.

''Scientists will be discouraged for a couple of years. But I think within three to four years you will be fully recovered.''

Lost in the explosion of Challenger was an experiment rack called Spartan Halley, which contained instruments to study ultraviolet light from the comet. The crew also had planned to photograph the comet with a hand-held camera and some special attachments, after a similar attempt failed during Columbia's mission in early January because of equipment problems.

In March, telescopes in Columbia's cargo bay were to study the comet in conjunction with Soviet and European probes that are to rendezvous with the comet within days of each other.

With the loss of that research, the United States is limited to some basic studies by its Pioneer 12 and Solar Maximum sun observatory probes. Congress would not fund a special Halley's probe.

''The United States is going to have very little presence in space with the study of Halley,'' said Ray Newburn, one of two world leaders of the International Halley Watch.

In terms of scientific prestige, however, ''U.S. science is in good enough shape that it can stand the loss,'' said Newburn, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

As many as 200 technicians have been trained to work on the Galileo probe, and many will have to be given other work in the meantime, said Al Wolfe, deputy project manager at Cape Canaveral.

On the positive side, the delays will give technicians more time to test spacecraft more thoroughly, increasing confidence that they will work properly when launched.

The same is true for technicians working to prepare the Space Telescope, said NASA spokesman Charles Redmond.

Science research for commercial purposes, such as the study of fluids that Challenger astronaut Greg Jarvis planned to do for Hughes Aircraft, also will be affected by the delay.